Ordeal
by Rusted Leaf
Summary: Zelda is to become Queen of Hyrule, but before this happens she must undergo a year of tests, traveling to the different temples and overcoming obstacles. Link knows the dangers and follows her secretly. R for later chapters. First fic, please review.
1. Beginning

Note: For our purposes, Zelda never sent Link back in time at the end of the game, got it? Okay I'm glad we're all on the same wavelength. Oh yeah, and...well...I own none of these characters. This takes place one year after Ocarina of Time.  
  
"Your Ordeal of Queenship is in two days time Princess." The speaker was a blonde man of eighteen. He was Link, Hero of Time.  
  
"Yes, I know that. You must look after the people of Hyrule while I am away."  
  
"Zelda, you really..someone should go with you."  
  
"No Link, this is something I must do myself. It is tradition in the Royal Family, it proves we are ready to face whatever may come our way and defeat whatever enemy may try to take this land." Zelda was scared. No, that was an understatement. Zelda was terror stricken. If there was one thing that Hyrule's Princess couldn't handle, it was the thought of failure.  
  
The Ordeal was similar in many ways to Link's quest to save Hyrule from Ganondorf's tyrannical reign.  
  
It began in the Autumn. The cold, wet months where the leaves had all gone from the trees and the nights were chill. Zelda would have to travel to the temples where Link defeated so many obstacles, and face her own trials.  
  
Link stood up and started pacing the area of his small house in the Kokiri Village. Zelda sat on the bed, looking as if her opinion on the matter was unalterable.  
  
"Zelda," he said, finally stopping, crouching down so that he was eye level with her. "You are allowed to have a body guard. I've read the histories of Hyrule and I know that it is stated in some of the books that your ancestors took companions with them. Even the greatest get lonely sometimes. The responsibility is huge..."  
  
"Link, stop. You are not coming. I go alone. Tonight, without you." With that, Zelda was gone, having warped out of the village.  
  
He did not know what to do. Zelda had never traveled Hyrule alone, though neither had he. Yet Link knew that without Navi, despite how annoying she could be, he would never have made it out alive. Zelda had no fairy to keep her company, no one to talk to. He was worried, but could not figure out how to make her see his point.  
  
"Perhaps Saria will know what to do. She's a girl, and a sage," he muttered to himself.  
  
Following the tune of Saria's song, he navigated his way through the Lost Woods with ease until he came upon the Forest Temple.  
  
He found Saria playing a fairy ocarina, which was really not surprising considering it was one of her favorite pastimes.  
  
"Saria.." The green haired girl was so absorbed in her music that she did not hear him. "Saria!" He tried again. He was really getting fed up with the female sex today.  
  
"Next thing you know I'm gonna find myself engaged to Ruto again, while Malon decides to repossess Epona. Women!" This he muttered very quietly, or so he thought, until Saria looked up and reprimanded him for his rudeness.  
  
"Link, you really shouldn't sneak up on people like that. Besides its not women who are the problem, its you men and your inability to understand anything." Saria had become a bit of a feminist lately, after Mido had begun telling her that he knew better than her how to do something because he was a man. Link couldn't even recall what that something was.  
  
"Saria, please..this is serious."  
  
Ever the good friend, Saria sat up and listened carefully. When he was finished she offered her advice.  
  
"Link.I know Zelda. Once she decides something, her mind is made up. She would listen to, and consider opinions, but if she feels very strongly that she is correct then there is nothing you can do except to follow her."  
  
"Follow her?"  
  
"Don't look so surprised, I know that's what you intended to do anyway, I did watch you grow up you know. It may be easy to forget considering how young I seem, but I did change you when you soiled your pants. I know everything about you," she said, smirking.  
  
"Well..yes. Do you think she'd mind terribly?" He grinned, delighted with the prospect of an adventure, for following Zelda against her wishes was as dangerous as fighting any of the bosses at the temples she was to go to.  
  
"Yes, what exactly does this Ordeal of hers entail?"  
  
He began to explain to her.  
  
According to the history books, a Royal Ordeal took a year. Not a year and a day as many stories say, just one year.  
  
For their purposes, the year began in Autumn, when the cold nights could kill you if you did not pack warm clothes. Zelda was to set out from Hyrule Castle Town, leaving the Kingdom in the hands of someone she knew to be trustworthy. She would then travel to the Water Temple on foot. It was worked out so that Zelda would be in places such as the Fire Temple and Spirit Temple during the summer, and the colder areas during the winter. All part of the test.  
  
After Link finished a much more detailed version of that explanation, Saria came to the conclusion that someone had better go with her, and a fairy would be quite useful. Of course Zelda would never agree to having a little fairy following her wherever she went, so Link was the next best thing.  
  
"Link.may I ask you a personal question?"  
  
"I guess so."  
  
"Well, I just wanted to know if you are doing this for Zelda, or for yourself?"  
  
"For Zelda of course! What do I have to gain from following some Princess around for a year?" He was too defensive to mean it and he knew Saria would see right through him.  
  
"Look. Link I know that you had a nice romance with her, but she has to marry to benefit the kingdom. Or that's what she said, and I agree with her. It was her decision, and you should respect that. Are you trying to win her back by doing this or do you just want to be near her?"  
  
"Saria, I don't know. I love Zelda and don't know what she feels. If I can win her back I will, but I don't want her to die. That is why I want to go. For me, for Zelda, and for Hyrule."  
  
Author's Note: This chapter is kind of short, but its only the beginning of what will be a very long fic. I'll update as regularly as I can. 


	2. Events Leading Up To The First Ordeal

(A/N: I feel silly rating this R, but trust me, it will get there.)  
  
Link had once been in love with the princess. He had once thought that they would be together for a lifetime.  
  
Of course this was a childish wish. Zelda, as with most royalty would have to marry for the good of Hyrule. This did not mean she had to be so odd about the prospect of him traveling with her.  
  
He and Saria had puzzled out that this was the real reason for disallowing Link to accompany her.  
  
* * *  
  
Zelda ran to meet Link, nearly knocking him over as the two embraced. Link pulled back, cupping her cheek in one hand.  
  
"I love you ," he said. Zelda smiled. Link brought his face closer to her's, leaning in to kiss her passionately. Her arms went round his neck as she closed her eyes and Link kissed her eyelids, her nose, then returned to her lips.  
  
He pulled away, grinning evilly.  
  
"Hello Princess." Staring Zelda in the face was Ganondorf.  
  
* * *  
  
Zelda awoke with tears streaming down her face, her sheets soaked in sweat. She laid back in her soft canopy bed and wept for a while, before creeping out of her bed.  
  
Finding on her dresser an Ocarina given to her by Saria, she played the tune of Saria's song.  
  
"Zelda, do you wish to speak with me?" came the voice of the Forest Sage.  
  
"Saria, I've had a dream. A nightmare. I cannot tell if it was a premonition. I'm..Saria I don't know, but I didn't know who else I could talk to at this hour or how to contact anyone.."  
  
"Its okay, stay calm. I will be right there."  
  
In seconds Saria had warped to Zelda's bedroom.  
  
The small girl gave Zelda a hug, though she only came to Zelda's hip.  
  
"I think dreams are more Nabooru's forte," Saria said , pulling away from the princess and looking up at her tear stained face, her haunted eyes. It was clear to Saria that Zelda felt this to be a premonition.  
  
"Yes, but I can't help being a bit biased against her, being the sister of Ganondorf," she said with a shudder.  
  
"You know she had nothing to do with it." Saria was very sensible and Zelda was getting the Sage of Spirit's opinion on the matter whether she agreed to it or not.  
  
Zelda paced the pink carpet of her room, stopping at one of her windows to gaze out at the sky which was getting lighter by the second. A draught came through the opened window, blowing the blond strand's of Zelda's hair.  
  
Saria took this opportunity to summon her fellow sage. She whispered to her what had happened. Nabooru nodded in understanding and walked noiselessly over to the princess, gently touching Zelda's quivering shoulder. Startled, Zelda gasped.  
  
Breathlessly she said, "Nabooru, I'm sorry. I did not realize you had come."  
  
"Saria summoned me. Do not be angered at her. She only recognized that I could help you better with this problem than she herself could. Do you understand? I do not wish you to yell at her when I am gone," Nabooru stated calmly and wisely, Zelda had been prone to shouting lately, especially when things were done without her consent.  
  
"I won't."  
  
"Good, now Saria told me about this dream. I see you blush. Why? Is it because you enjoyed it until it took its turn?"  
  
"I didn't enjoy it! I cannot control dreams or premonitions!" Zelda protested fiercely, crossing her arms in anger. A smile played on Nabooru's large, dark, lips.  
  
"You do control your dreams more than you know. If it was a premonition, then you did not have control. However, I find it doubtful that this was any more than a terrible dream." Nabooru ought to know, being expert at interpretting both dreams and premonitions. It was an art among the Gerudo people, one few had mastered to Nabooru's extent.  
  
"But if I did control it does it not still have meaning?" This Zelda asked not to cause argument, but because she genuinely wished to know. Pulling her robe around her, she awaited a reply.  
  
* * *  
  
It was night by the time Link had reached his treehouse in the Kokiri Village.  
  
"Too late for me to stock up on supplies now," Link told the air as he climbed the wooden ladder. Leaving his boots by the door, he entered.  
  
It was nice to be back home. No women bothering him, no battles to fight. He knew he'd better take it all in before he had to leave.  
  
He lay on his bed mulling things over in his mind when he heard someone calling his name. The voice was very familiar. Annoying, high pitched, shrill. It could only belong to one. And that one was his fairy, Navi.  
  
Fluttering above his head she again called his name, tugging at his hair.  
  
"Alright! I'm up! What do you want?" Link had been through all of this before. If Navi was trying to get him to go on a mission for the Deku Tree Sprout he would kill her. He had enough on his hands as it was.  
  
"I'm here to help you. Saria thought you could use a fairy. You know, I can help you target things and such. The usual fairy gig."  
  
* * *  
  
"If you were just having a normal dream then it does indeed have meaning, like a premonition. In this case, assuming your dream was one such as any Hylian would have, then its meaning is quite clear."  
  
"And.." Zelda prompted.  
  
"It is that the reason you ended things with Link was that you feared to loose him."  
  
"I knew you'd all take his side." The princess was fuming. Her travels began in three days time and she did not need to have all these pro Link sentiments adding to her stress.  
  
"And if it wasn't just a dream, if it were indeed a premonition, then I can only gather that it means Link's life will be taken by Ganondorf, and that he shall return."  
  
A bleak took over the room.  
  
* * * The three days passed slowly for Zelda. She was anxious to go.  
  
"I've got to get out of here soon. This waiting is going to kill me."  
  
This statement was truly a foolish one. If anything was going to kill her it would be the ordeals. It would only take her a day or too to reach Death Mountain, home of the Fire Temple, the location of her first Ordeal.  
  
* * *  
  
"Hey! Link! Listen!" Navi fluttered violently about the tree house trying to get Link's attention.  
  
"Navi you don't always have to shout to get my attention. Be civil for once."  
  
"Zelda's set out for her quest. The Fire Temple is first I believe." 


End file.
